I'm thinking of not supplying towels anymore. Last year I invested a lot in some lovely white towels and quite a number are now stained. It is proving impossible to remove the stains so it is going to cost me a lot to replace them all. Not to mention all the space they take up in my house.
My nearest competitor in the area, who has a rental business very similar to mine in size, accommodation and facilties - although his prices are higher, doesn't supply towels within the price and it certainly doesn't effect his bookings at all.
I'm fed up with them! It would also reduce my laundry time on a changeover day considerably - 24 big towels make up at least 6 loads of washing.
What do you all do?
Towels??
I would say - do it Susan!
If your competitor isn't and is doing OK on bookings - then it doesn't seem as if its a necessary item for happy guests.
For the Ibiza market I have to provide them - its the norm, particularly because the only way people get here is by plane. However I stayed away from providing pool towels (even though friends said they did them with their villas) and not one guest has mentioned the fact.
One thing I am toying with is introducing a 'luxury' package. This would be a buyable extra for the guests but would include things like hairdryers, BBQ pack, large fluffy towels, more frequent cleaning etc (I'm still working out the details). If you have a few decent towels left this might be an idea for you.
I don't think many of our guests would take up the option but the ones that do would have to pre-order so it would give me an indication of what people might pay for on top of a basic package.
I think you can give people too much sometimes and in customer service it is a very small step to delight your client, too much and they don't appreciate it or you raise their expectations. The trick is finding out what delights...
Be towel free!!!! (and blame it on the fact you're helping to save the planet...a new USP!!!)
Mouse
x
p.s. I have a brilliant idea for unusable towels that I wanted to share - but I was scared to re-start the towel thread!?
If your competitor isn't and is doing OK on bookings - then it doesn't seem as if its a necessary item for happy guests.
For the Ibiza market I have to provide them - its the norm, particularly because the only way people get here is by plane. However I stayed away from providing pool towels (even though friends said they did them with their villas) and not one guest has mentioned the fact.
One thing I am toying with is introducing a 'luxury' package. This would be a buyable extra for the guests but would include things like hairdryers, BBQ pack, large fluffy towels, more frequent cleaning etc (I'm still working out the details). If you have a few decent towels left this might be an idea for you.
I don't think many of our guests would take up the option but the ones that do would have to pre-order so it would give me an indication of what people might pay for on top of a basic package.
I think you can give people too much sometimes and in customer service it is a very small step to delight your client, too much and they don't appreciate it or you raise their expectations. The trick is finding out what delights...
Be towel free!!!! (and blame it on the fact you're helping to save the planet...a new USP!!!)
Mouse
x
p.s. I have a brilliant idea for unusable towels that I wanted to share - but I was scared to re-start the towel thread!?
Go ahead and re-start the towels thread! 
Just FYI, as an American, if I were visiting Europe, I would never book accomodation that didn't provide towels. I'm sure it works fine for people who are driving and can bring towels with them, but it is very inconvenient for people who have to fly.
Then again, you may have enough business that it doesn't matter. But even so, if you are going to remove the towels from your cottages, do specify that very clearly up front when you get new inquiries.
How much would it cost you to buy new towels, say, every month? Could you divide this into weeks and add it to the cost of a weekly rental? The fact that your nearest competitor's prices are higher suggests that your prices could go up a bit without hurting bookings, and you would still be more full-service than he is.
Just FYI, as an American, if I were visiting Europe, I would never book accomodation that didn't provide towels. I'm sure it works fine for people who are driving and can bring towels with them, but it is very inconvenient for people who have to fly.
Then again, you may have enough business that it doesn't matter. But even so, if you are going to remove the towels from your cottages, do specify that very clearly up front when you get new inquiries.
How much would it cost you to buy new towels, say, every month? Could you divide this into weeks and add it to the cost of a weekly rental? The fact that your nearest competitor's prices are higher suggests that your prices could go up a bit without hurting bookings, and you would still be more full-service than he is.
Brooke
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Hells Bells
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- Location: French Alps
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Exactly my reason for supplying towels, being a 10 hour drive from the UK, means most of my UK guests fly to Turin, and Ryanair do not have a generous enough luggage allowance to account for towels. I do have some French guests however, but not enough to justify removing them from the rental. I have kept to a face towel, hand towel, and small bath towel each, although we do have some bath sheets that are put out when we only have a couple staying. The bathrobes are still neatly folded in the bottom drawer (when we had our first weeks guests, the robe hoolks were up in the bathroom, but not the bedroom), and have not been used.
Mosy of my guests travel by ferry, so space isn't generally an issue, but I would still have towels available to hire, if required. I totally understand that if people are flying they don't have room for towels in their luggage.
I don't know what it is this year, in previous years I have never had the stains before, so was always happy to provide towels. One towel is 12,50€, which is OK, but when it comes to 8 being stained permanently, that equates to over 100€ to replace them and they could well be ruined by the first guests I give them too. Having spent well over 600€ last year on new towels, I really didn't bank on having to replace them so quickly. It really isn't cost effective at all, but at least if I was charging every time they were hired, I wouldn't feel so bad. After all, some people prefer to bring their own towels, so why should they be penalised by having to pay for towels inclusively?
I don't know what it is this year, in previous years I have never had the stains before, so was always happy to provide towels. One towel is 12,50€, which is OK, but when it comes to 8 being stained permanently, that equates to over 100€ to replace them and they could well be ruined by the first guests I give them too. Having spent well over 600€ last year on new towels, I really didn't bank on having to replace them so quickly. It really isn't cost effective at all, but at least if I was charging every time they were hired, I wouldn't feel so bad. After all, some people prefer to bring their own towels, so why should they be penalised by having to pay for towels inclusively?
Fraise, today I tried a pre stain remover + oxy whatever stain remover during a 95° wash and when I took them out they looked exactly the same as they did before, not one stain had disappeared. I'm tempted to take them to the local dressing, but I've got a feeling it would be cheaper to buy new towels than to get them professionally cleaned (with no guarantee that the stains will come out).
Mouse, what do you do with your old towels? Mine get downgraded to pool towels, then dog towels. Having said that, the dog towels look cleaner and less stained than some of my 'house' towels do at the moment.
What is going on this year??
Mouse, what do you do with your old towels? Mine get downgraded to pool towels, then dog towels. Having said that, the dog towels look cleaner and less stained than some of my 'house' towels do at the moment.
What is going on this year??
Susan, You say that space isn't an issue as your guests are traveling by ferry. Given the huge pile of towels I leave in each property each week I would disagree. It does depend on your customers of course, but we have mainly families here, and it is rare for a car to turn up that is not absolutely packed to the gunnels, without towels. How on earth they would fit in the towels I don't know. I guess they would end up putting a couple in, and just putting up with the inconvenience.
I say keep the towels and put your prices up.
Ju
I say keep the towels and put your prices up.
Ju
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cromercrabholiday
- Posts: 797
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We were told that to keep our 4 rosettes, we had to provide towels (but could charge for doing so). So Jane went out and bought a pile of towels and they have been used by two sets of guest only (people from abroad, so this makes sense).
We think that we won't need to buy towels when we retire as the cottage towels are likely to be pristine!
John
We think that we won't need to buy towels when we retire as the cottage towels are likely to be pristine!
John
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Bellywobble
- Posts: 1262
- Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2006 7:40 pm
I was really upset when two full sets of towels, new blanket and duvet cover were all stained, by a guest who had complimented me on the quality of the towels! He was a lovely guy who has kept in touch with us and visited when he has been in the area.He just didn't seem to realise he had done this, though I can't imagine how!
I've kept all the stained sheets (can't do a thing with the yellow stains) and towels in the house for our own use. It's now reached the point where I have nothing pristine for house guests
Only this week my own teenage son and a visiting friend have both ruined towels wth their acne creams, and with 3 more teenagers arriving tomorrow, I feel like telling them all to stand in front of a fan and have a blow dry! I don't know why they can't ruin the small hand towels, it's always the bath sheets. 
We only have a small apartment and our prices are rock bottom so it's hard to fit new towels into the budget. I think I may have to resort to filling the bath with bleach and doing a sort of tye dye thing in order to get a decent matching set!
I've kept all the stained sheets (can't do a thing with the yellow stains) and towels in the house for our own use. It's now reached the point where I have nothing pristine for house guests
Only this week my own teenage son and a visiting friend have both ruined towels wth their acne creams, and with 3 more teenagers arriving tomorrow, I feel like telling them all to stand in front of a fan and have a blow dry! I don't know why they can't ruin the small hand towels, it's always the bath sheets. We only have a small apartment and our prices are rock bottom so it's hard to fit new towels into the budget. I think I may have to resort to filling the bath with bleach and doing a sort of tye dye thing in order to get a decent matching set!
I do provide towels but have also sometimes wondered if I should continue doing so, for the same reasons. It's so difficult to keep them nice. But I must admit, I don't feel compelled to go and buy new ones. As a guest in a villa, I'm not bothered myself if the towels are not pristine. As I'm not on site, I don't get to see whether the towels are holding up well or not so it's a bit out of sight out of mind. And none of my guests have complained about my towels... I think most of the time people are just happy to not have to pack them. And those people who wouldn't dream of using a less than perfect towel would probably bring their own anyway.
After all we don't charge hotel prices, so where is the expectation to provide hotel quality towels?
After all we don't charge hotel prices, so where is the expectation to provide hotel quality towels?
Nightowl
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
Forever going one step forwards and two
backwards......
When we first started renting (3 years ago) we weighed the pros and cons about supplying a full set of towels (per person) (considering our villa sleeps 9 people) and we decided against supplying towels. We mention in our T&C's that we do not provide bath towels in the villa and we always re-confirm this in emails to guests.
Not one of our guests have complained about this, and I am so glad that I don't provide them as I don't have the problem about replacing stained or misused bath towels (bed linen is enough to worry about!) We do however provide hand towels in the bathrooms and they are all dark blue!
Not one of our guests have complained about this, and I am so glad that I don't provide them as I don't have the problem about replacing stained or misused bath towels (bed linen is enough to worry about!) We do however provide hand towels in the bathrooms and they are all dark blue!
